MOONJI Poet Selections

Capturing a moment from the peak, poetry grasps the most intense interior of life, the most transparent images of objects, and the representative emotions and meaning of a certain generation. Moonji Poet Selections is the reservoir of outstanding Korean poetries with unique aesthetics, beautiful words and startling images.
The 276 volumes of collected poetry starting from “I Want to Roll a Wheel When I See One”, written by Dong-Gyoo Hwang in 1978 to “A Dictionary with Seven Words”, written by Eun-Young Jin in 2003 are the core of Korean poetry.

Applying his pain from his personal life to the universal life, the author battled with the ill fate stuck at the bottom of existence. His first collection “When Does the Rolling Stone Wake Up” including previously unpublished poems, is a treasure that saves us from the pain through the pursuit of truth.

Birds Fly away, too, written by Ji-Woo Hwang , 1983
Ji-Woo Hwang’s first collection “Birds Fly Away, too” daringly demolishes the orthodox conception of poetry, and builds a bold experiment and an advanced style. And yet his destructive work gives out piercing satire, a mind of strong denial and sorrow that lies within. The methodology of poetry becomes the message.

The Love of this Age, written by Seung-Ja Choi , 1981
In the maiden work of Seung-Ja Choi, “The Love of this Age”, by gushing out tragic passion that was to hot for the traditional poetry to handle, she desperately cries out the meaning of damaged life and its true value. This cry is a determination of a human being on love and freedom powered by language.

No, it’s not, written by Gwang-Gyu Kim , 1983
The early poems of the author were about sorrow of everyday life and criticism on organized society. This new collection steps forward to mentality of denial, and performs a tenacious introspection on personal and group life.

Water Lily, written by Ho-Ki Chae , 2002
“Water Lily” by Ho-Ki Chae is an extension of his early collections which sang about the body. He has always told us about the fluctuation of power of the body and the Eros ― both intense and subtle ― which leads to violence from time to time. The grotesquely depicted body in his poems is the Janus of movement and stillness. It is the mirror of pain and pleasure.

In this book of poems, the reality of political desire, material desire and sexual desire entangled in the much too complicated industrial society is nakedly displayed with the use of rhythm and words closely related to desire while at the same time pinching, twitching and making caricatures of the corruption, and finally satirizing it. On the other hand, by setting up an antipodean place, “Hana-dae”, the pure archetype, he displays a not yet distorted desire which he longs for and dreams of.

The poet’s voice is wide open to the world and to all things. The poet’s eyes reveal the true form of the objects. The poet’s ears listen to all sounds not yet filtered. The poet hides under the word, solitude, and erases himself. Thus, the world and objects turn toward solitude and shine as their true selves.

Pathetic Love Machine, written by Hye-Soon Kim , 1997
The poems in “Pathetic Love Machine” are machines that cook up time and space. The machines roll up the infinite time of the past and the future like an egg roll, and they gather them in the present time. These machines pour the spaces from all places into themselves, and then they shake them, mix them and finally throw them up.

The poet criticizes the world of civilization with an architectural imagination in his first collection, “5 Billion and 670 Million Years of Solitude”. Because his criticism extends to myth, knowledge, legend, history and ideology, surely it is a grand book of criticism. He often quotes and parodies other artists’ and philosophers’ works, thus his constructive poems are just like constructions.

The House of Dust, written by Yoon-Hak Yi , 1992
The poet sees despair, pain, confinement, binding and death in objects. The reason is not shown on the surface, but his imagination tears the objects open and engraves those gloomy thoughts in them. His poems are indeed dark, but they are not hopeless, because it exposes the substance of darkness through its objects.

Dongdoochun, written by Myung-In Kim , 1979
Magnificent land of Youngdong, endless blue wave of Donghae and the grief of the weak nation are his poem’s basic motif. The pathos and tragedy dissolve in his sensibility, and they become the pain and sorrow of life. The emotions become the will and desire to overcome the pain and sorrow. This collection is his first fruit of passion.

Digital culture represented by the internet ate away the life of modern people. The poetries rain questions of the place of existence with the aid of intense and sharp words. Won Yi was invited at 35th Poetry International Festival in the City Theatre of Rotterdam, June 2004.